Charita Goshay: Hey E.T.  Shoulda turned left at Albuquerque

What were those mysterious, vertical streaks of light in the sky Sunday night? Were they ice crystals, an asteroid or aliens?

Charita Goshay

On Sunday night, a handful of motorists in Perry Township, Ohio, reported seeing mysterious, vertical streaks of light in the sky that changed colors; some streaks lasted as long as 10 minutes.

Explanations have included ice crystals and an asteroid that has entered the earth’s atmosphere.

But what if it’s something else ... a close encounter?

Then again, do we really want dealings with any alien dumb enough to visit Ohio in the dead of January — especially this January?

Didn’t he look down? We’ve gotten more hits this winter than a centerfold’s Web site.

Really, we should have known this was coming. Our regional weather forecast in the almanac reads, “Ha! Good luck.”

So just how cold has it been?

The rowdy squirrels in my yard are wearing rabbit.

On the way to work, I saw a dog in pants.

There’s a rumor that Satan offered to open the Gates of Hell to give us a break — but since Barack Obama was elected president, guess what froze over?

If the phenomenon in Perry Township indeed proves to be extraterrestrial, one thing is certain: The alien is male, because he has to be lost. No living being who didn’t already have family here, or a kid in a wrestling, basketball or swimming tournament, would purposely visit Ohio in January.

This winter could make a Buick blanche, let alone some flying saucer that probably doesn’t have defrost. If he isn’t a little green man, he will be after 10 minutes of trying to jump his battery in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

Let’s hope the lights were just one of those unexplainable things you see on the Discovery Channel’s “UFO Week.” The last thing we need right now is an interplanetary crash because of ice on the wings. We have enough chuck holes.

Never forget

Ed Casso, a state legislator in New York, is so worried people will forget about the Sept. 11 attacks that he recently but unsuccessfully proposed that the anniversary be designated a holiday.

Americans could no more forget about Sept. 11 than they could Christmas, Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination.

That morning, those minutes, changed us forever.

Casso said he’s concerned because of waning media attention and because expressions of grief and remembrance have lessened in their intensity.

Not really. It’s just that life demands that we go on; but going on is not the same as forgetting. We grieve still. Yet in that grief, the greatest tribute we can offer to those we’ve lost is to live.

The goal of terrorism is to smother life through fear of more terrorism. Were it up to me, I would never have closed the crown of the Statue of Liberty to visitors or Pennsylvania Avenue to traffic. I would rebuild the World Trade Center, exactly as it stood. We must do all we can to prevent terrorism, but we can’t let lingering fears of past tragedies hold us hostage.